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Wool shop memories

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:love:

 

Visiting Jill's last week helped me remember how much I love wool shops. Its a lifelong thing, and I am sad that there are no longer as many as there used to be.

 

I grew up in Rawmarsh, and in our particular part of Rawmarsh there were 3 wool shops in short walking distance. The first one I used to go to was a hardware shop which had half of its walls covered in wools. My grandma used to take me there. It was dark due to the walls being full of stock and smelt of paraffin. They sold a lot of Robin wools and when my grandma used to let me choose I always asked for red. I grew up in handknits: little twinsets to go with my kilts and fine cardis for the summer.

 

There was another which specialised in Hayfield and anything you bought came in a Hayfield bag. This was a very very dark shop too. The woman there always moderated my colour choices though :mad: The third had lots of fancy yarns and I think they were Wendy. I remember one summer they had a lovely window display of girls cardis in pastel ice cream colours for a particular range of wools. I had three knitted from this range. Ah the memories.

 

When I married and came to Sheffield in 1978 I lived in Wincobank. There were two wool shops in walking distance, one on Bellhouse Road (which may still be there I think) and another on the flower estate. By this time I had been lured by the bright lights of Cole Brothers and Rackhams and spent all my lunch hours looking at patterns. Before my first child was conceived it had a full layette!

 

I have many favourite hand knits from the past but the one that sticks in my mind was a long jumper in heather coloured Sirdar Country style I knitted in 1982 and I wore this for about 10 years and it kept its good looks. I wish I had saved it. What used to amuse me and the family was that our cat had a particular liking for this jumper and used to suck the decorative bobbles on the front:loopy:

 

Can anyone else share some wool shop memories?

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When I was a young knitter (ee, when I were a lass) there was a shop at the end of my mother's road that sold yarn. It was less of a shop and more the front room of someone's house as I remember. She used to put wool away so that I could come each week with my pocket money and buy the next ball. After that I graduated to the Pingouin stockist in Imperial Buildings at the top of High Street in Rotherham which kept me supplied with yarn and patterns up to me leaving for university at which point I stopped knitting for years.

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I used to go to Muntus on the High Street in Rotherham. My Mum always got her wool from there, and had it "put away". I can see the Department now..... There aren't many good wool shops that I know of - The Wool Baa being the best at the moment:D

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I used to go to Muntus on the High Street in Rotherham. My Mum always got her wool from there, and had it "put away". I can see the Department now..... There aren't many good wool shops that I know of - The Wool Baa being the best at the moment:D

 

At the moment :confused:

I remember Belmans on the High Street in Sheffield. It was on 2 floors and I used to sit there looking at all the colours while my Mum chose the yarn for my next cardi! From the age of about 8 I knitted my own cardis and Mum sewed them up. I could do with her still doing that now!

We also had a hardware shop that had a little room with wool in. There may be a theme there Yellowrose :) When I got all grown up and moved to Southey Green there was a wool shop just across the road from me that laid wool away - I also used to go the one on Bellhouse Road. It is called Matthews and Marilyn is still there and going strong. There were 2 wool shops at Walkley where I love now so I have never really had to travel far to get to a wool shop. People seem a bit surprised that I lay wool away. John Lewis used to do that too.

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My fondest memories of a wool shop was one near to where I worked. I worked close to the Inns of Court in London and I used to walk to High Holborn and visit the wool shop that is no longer there. I loved the Pingouin yarns and I remember taking ages to buy some silver grey mohair that had some silver lurex. It was 4ply and far too nice to knit. I would look through the patterns and be amazed by the selection. I found this wool shop to be as good as the book shops that I used to frequent and I found myself spending more and more time there. It was worth the walk and I would then walk to Waterloo station and go home. Unfortunately it opened my eyes to wonderful, colourful yarns and texture. And there started a habit of a lifetime. But now I use the yarn - not just cuddle it. But can I remember the name of the shop? It will come to me when I least expect it!

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I used to go to Muntus on the High Street in Rotherham. My Mum always got her wool from there, and had it "put away". I can see the Department now..... There aren't many good wool shops that I know of - The Wool Baa being the best at the moment:D

 

I used to go in there with my mum too. I seem to remember all wooden drawers with glass windows in them (or was that John Speeds?).

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I used to buy shedloads of seconds yarn in big packs of 10 from a shop on Stocksbridge, called "Bettinas", and crochet or knit it up, her shop was fantastic, (though not as good as Jills, as Jills' isn't seconds!)

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I remember the shop round the corner from Jill's. It sold mainly French wools, Pingouin and Phildar. It was there in the late 1980s when I was knitting lots of baby stuff.

My Grandma’s friend used to own the wool shop opposite the barracks at Hillsborough. It had dark wooden shelves and an old fashioned till which I was occasionally allowed to use. I can remember loving the look and smell of the shop and longing to play at shops. A real treat was being able to serve a customer by wrapping their wool up in a paper bag. I can't remember the name of the shop. Any ideas?

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I remember the shop round the corner from Jill's. It sold mainly French wools, Pingouin and Phildar. It was there in the late 1980s when I was knitting lots of baby stuff.

 

I remember that one too - it was there while I was a student and I couldn't afford the wool but used to like looking at it!!

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I remember that one too - it was there while I was a student and I couldn't afford the wool but used to like looking at it!!

 

My mother in law and sis in law used to make a special trip to a shop that sold pingouin and phildar so Im guessing this was the one. Ive just remembered Ive got some 4ply cotton by Pingouin in black somewhere, but I cant bear knitting/crocheting 4 ply these days. Would anyone like to offer a swap?

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I remember the shop round the corner from Jill's. It sold mainly French wools, Pingouin and Phildar. It was there in the late 1980s when I was knitting lots of baby stuff.

My Grandma’s friend used to own the wool shop opposite the barracks at Hillsborough. I can't remember the name of the shop. Any ideas?

 

Don't know the name of the shop at Hillsborough (mainly because there was just about a wool shop in every suburb and there was no need to go anywhere else) but the one round the corner from me was called,according to many of my customers, Gabrielles.

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To peakwool
The name of the wool shop on High Holborn was called Reis Wools.  I use to work close, my bus home was virtually in front of the store.  Use to love wondering around and looking at the amazing yarns, and garments.  Loved that store and miss it still.

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